


An unexpected door

by FiKate



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Dimension Travel, Friends of Narnia, Gen, Talking Animals, setting: Earth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 13:57:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12037326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiKate/pseuds/FiKate
Summary: My prompt was 'strangers in a strange land', Narnians in England. This is the tale of lark who found herself in Spare Oom and met someone connected to the beginnings of Narnia. I hope you like it. Thank you to Jennie for betaing.





	An unexpected door

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Syrena_of_the_lake](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrena_of_the_lake/gifts).



Sometimes there can be a door where there’s never been one before, perhaps it remembered a taste of magic, the touch of a ring and wanted to open a way. The door simply needed someone to be looking for more. This is the story of a time when a door opened between Narnia and England. It doesn’t concern kings and queens though a distant relation is involved. It’s about a time when a bird went on a journey and found a friend.

Leslie was a fine lark, her songs were clear, her flight was beautiful but she wasn’t satisfied, she was a seeker. She had never yearned to be a scout, a part of the great Narnian forces that looked beyond the walls. Instead she flew into the unexpected lights and darks found within the Lantern Waste and wondered about Spare Oom. It was a real and true place because the kings and queens came from there but the stories they told were strange about things that flew that weren’t birds and ran without legs.

She didn’t notice that she flew through the door, trees were trees and while the ones through the door were quieter, she had found a bush full of ripe gooseberries to snack on. The bush was on the edge of a wood and a meadow, maybe a field, she had never been good at knowing the difference between a pasture and a meadow. Pastures had horses who didn’t always like birds landing on them, meadows had more flowers. She was lucky that this bush had any berries on it as there was a war on and everyone in England was hungry, but these gooseberries were almost inside the forest. 

“Oi, bird, get off of those, they’re mine,” Ian was leaving for the army in two days, he was finally old enough to join and had his eye on those gooseberries. His mother would be able to make something delicious with them and appreciate having them.

Leslie turned and said, “I got here first.” 

He was about to wave his basket and dropped it, “Did you say that?”

“Yes and why wouldn’t I? This is Narnia and I can eat these berries. Are you from Archenland?” Perhaps that was why he didn’t understand but she’d flown around Archenlanders, they weren’t that surprised by Talking Animals. The Man didn’t answer but kept staring at her, she started on another berry. It probably wasn’t good that he was so quiet. Leslie flew over to his basket and pecked at his hand.

“Leave off, bird and you’re not making sense. Birds only talk in fairy stories,” He tried to wave her away.

“I am a Narnian bird and you’re being very rude. I will report you to the High King and then you’ll pay,” She fluffed herself out to her biggest as he continued to look at her, his clothing didn’t look like what she knew. Could she have somehow flown someplace new?

“Wha..what’s this Narnia you could keep going on about?” His voice was all shaky, she’d never heard a human voice do that, Fauns did sometimes.

“Narnia, my home and where we are,” She hopped onto his arm, maybe he wasn’t a human though he seemed like maybe he was.

“No, we’re in Oxfordshire, in England,” His voice slowed as if she wouldn’t understand him or maybe he was worried. Humans are hard to read.

“England, oh, is that near Spare Oom?” 

“Spare Oom like a spare room?” He peered at her, at least he was listening properly now.

“No, I don’t know. Spare Oom is where the kings and queens of Narnia are from. Aren’t you a Son of Adam? You should know who they are,” She met his gaze, his eyes were the color of a stormy sky, the birds in Narnia knew each other. Maybe she didn’t know everyone but she knew the important birds.

“There’s the King but I don’t know him. He’s up in his castle or London, wherever he’s making the radio shows from. About the war and that we all need to fight and have hope. I’m going to go fight soon,” His words came fast, he sounded like her friend Eva when she had news to share.

“Who are you fighting?” She’d never seen a war, she had been hatched after the Long Winter.

“The Germans, they’re trying to take over everything and we can’t let them.” 

Leslie sang a little note at him, he was brave. “Are you a knight?”

“No, I’ll be a private but I’ll keep England safe,” Now he puffed up a bit, it made him look kind of like the centaur guards when they were on duty.

“Private, what does that mean?”

“It means I won’t be an important soldier but out there fighting. I would have gone sooner but I wasn’t old enough and Mum needed me to help in the fields. Now I am and I’m going to go soon. And those berries are going into a pie and preserves, so share,” He took a step nearer to the bush.

Leslie didn’t know you had to be older to fight, she’d have to ask Mr. Tumnus when he was around, he would know, “Oh, you can have the berries on that side.”

He smiled at her and started picking the gooseberries as Leslie flew back to the bush. 

“I wonder how I get back?” She asked.

“You’re a bird so you fly back,” That made sense, she would fly and be safe.

“But I don’t know where I flew to end up here.”

“You’ll have to try someplace, don’t want your family to worry when you don’t come back.”

“Oh yes, my brother’s been off to Archenland, he likes the mountain breezes. Then he comes back when it gets too windy.”

Ian smiled and stood up, holding his now almost full basket of gooseberries, “Then let’s get you safe and home. My Mum’s older brother disappeared and his wife too from London, we never knew what happened to them. No one was going to go searching for one cabbie.”

“A cabbie?” She didn’t know what that word meant but flew back the way she came to see if there was anything. He followed behind her to the edge of the forest and watched her dart in between trees, “The trees are the same.”

Ian shook his head, there wasn’t time to explain and followed her and then stopped as the forest that he’d known all his life smelled different, the air was crisper, “Over here. I think this is your way.”

Leslie flew beside him and sang, “Yes, that’s home. Do you want to visit?”

He looked into the place with air he didn’t know and thought of his parents, of the war and took a step back, “No, I’m needed here.”

She landed on his arm and looked at him, “I know you’ll be brave in your war. Thank you for showing me the way home.” 

Then Leslie took off and went through the trees to Narnia and in England behind her, the door waited as Ian stood before it. Only when he turned back to walk home where his mother would bake and try not to cry as she sent him off to war did the door disappear.


End file.
